Guild Wars 2

After 4 years of playing conquest, I am bored of conquest. Can we please have some new competitive game modes for ranked?

Roaming two hours later running into the same problem…

Time stamps of every individual problem involving the ele’s lag are detailed in the description

So I have been screwed by character-lag multiple times in the past week. The first in a pvp match, where an enemy ranger entered the downed state and I stomped. The stomp completed, but the ranger did not die. I stomped again. Same result.

After stealing to the ranger, turns out his actual body was about 400-500 range from where his body appeared on the ground.

Again today in WvW, I 1v1d a necromancer with some terrible lag. He went down and I began to cleave his body, but got no damage. The screenshot shows the result of stealing to him. I stood exactly where the screenshot shows autoattacking and his character model (easily 600 range away) took damage. Cleaving where his character model appeared did nothing.

If there a fix for this? In WvW its not the end of the world, but this type of lag can swing games in PvP (not being able to finish off an enemy player and having them eventually get rallied). I hate to say don’t let players with bad ping enter competitive PvP environments, but it ruins the game for us with decent connection.

There’s definitely not a best 1v1 player… I win 95% of my 1v1s on scrapper, but lost to a really good DH the other day. That same DH (who beat me consistently), lost 4/5 to a guy that I have never lost to. Point being, certain classes counter others.

You could probably make a list of the top 250 1v1ers in the game, but there’s no best.

Short and sweet: I think GW2 is missing something huge. I see two options for competitive player vs player combat right now (and please correct me if I’m wrong):
A) 20+ vs 20+ WvW zerg busting, super blobby, only really available when your guild raids (don’t even pretend like following the pugmander and ppting is good pvp content)
B) 5v5 conquest with small variety in map mechanics over a couple of maps. Honestly the maps don’t do much for me. Whether I’m killing lord or killing side-beasts or capping skyhammer, it’s still 5v5 conquest. Every day. Every match. 5v5 conquest.

I think courtyard and stronghold were good additions to the game, but they both seem to have been scrapped from a competitive standpoint. What if GW2 had sometime like WoW’s warsong? EVERYONE CHILL FOR A SECOND, hear me out…

Yes I understand this is not WoW. No, I’m not suggesting Anet should copy paste WoW’s pvp queue. What I am saying is I think GW2 would thrive in a 10v10 combat size. GW2’s combat system is AMAZING in a 5-10 vs 5-10 teamfight setting, and there’s currently no where in the game to get that (except maybe a small WvW guild?).

What if GW2 had some 5v5 to 10v10 (even 8v8? would be tricky with party comps considering how boons work) content consisting of capture the flag, maybe some larger scale conquest, hell even team deathmatch. Anything. I would argue that GW2 has the best suited combat system out there to handle this type of combat. I’ve played WoW for 8 years. WSG is fantastic, but WoW’s pvp combat blows. Bring something like that to guild wars and you’ve got yourself a game changer.

Just my thoughts, though. It may also help with the lowest active-subscriber numbers. WvW is great as it is, I’m not sure if there’s too much to do there in terms of “adding content”. PvP feels bland, though. The new rewards are great, but the actually matches have been the same thing since launch.

Definitely would love to discuss some ideas with others, so feel free to comment!

What?? Why are we talking about builds lol… I asked which server will be best for finding fights..

Hello all,

Me and a couple buddies are starting back up a zerg busting guild. Planning on running 18-20 players, guild builds, discord, etc (definitely contact me if interested)

My question, however, is what is the best tier/server for such a guild? Maybe the lowest server of T1 or T2? Somewhere where finding fights won’t be an issue. Let me know what you all think!

The unkillable permastealth trailblazer trapper condi thief could use some nerfing, and I don’t think the problem is stealth, traps, or thief. Trailblazer seems to be a pretty aids stat combination, especially in the hands of a class like condi thief there they can 100-0 you without exiting stealth… But still survive if you catch them? A power build that can 100-0 you will melt if you catch them. Seems silly to me.

Also I agree, Kamara… Eles could use some love. They are terrible for roaming (overloads suuuuuucccckkkkk 1v1), and seems like the only viable raid build they have is the mega-bunker healbot tempest. Would love to be able to roam as ele again!

Hello,

Sorry for the clickbaity title, but if I don’t find a guild fast I’m going to end up quitting again.

I am a skilled player with experience across multiple MMOs in multiple game modes. I’m currently ranked platinum 1 in GW2 pvp and was a 2100 WoW pvp healer through warlords and legion. In addition, I am both GM and raid leader of a WoW mythic raiding guild.

Not that anyone gives a kitten about my pvp rank or WoW experience, just trying to convey that I’m not trash

I would say I am looking primarily for a WvW guild… zerg busting with around 20 or so, maybe some GvGs and strong roamers to play with as well. Also, I was told GW2 raids aren’t that terrible and compare to WoW’s mythic difficulty, so I would love to get into those or some high level fractals. I love to PvP as well, but I don’t know if PvP guilds still exist due to the cap on ranked queues.

To summarize, I’m looking for a permanent guild for high levels of play in all aspects of the game (with a slight preference for WvW) with around 20 or so close members. I am looking for a tight-knit community, not just people to log on and play with. As stated in the title, I am willing to transfer servers if I find a guild that I vibe well enough with.

Feel free to message me here or in-game at Rhego.6590

Thanks for your time!

AJ

Well then they need someone to do that job, because watching Rubi and whoever else try to reveal expansion content seems like a joke to me. Its extremely unprofessional in my opinion.

Best way to get information is a 3rd party source? I agree Dulfy.net is a great place to go, but it’sa big issue that that’s the case

Also, they already sold the product… I want to know what I bought.

As a very “intellectual” player, I enjoy reading all the information before playing it. I don’t want anything in HoT to be a surprise… I just want to know exactly what is coming in a very clear, concise, and consolidated manner.

Hello GW2 community,

I am not writing this to complain about game balance or a feature I don’t like, but rather a problem I feel is extremely hindering to ArenaNet in comparison to other MMORPG content releases, such as WoW for example.

Today is the day before the expansion release. I am still unsure exactly what is happening. I am looking for a source to find every change so I am ready for tomorrow, but I can’t find it. I can’t find full expansion notes anywhere, so I resorted to the stream videos… “PoI”, “GuildChat”, whatever it may be. Not to call anyone out in particular, because I notice it EVERY video.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/esl-guild-wars-2-pro-league-and-legendary-weapons-on-guild-chat-a-summary/

I was watching the stream on the action camera and I could not grasp the changes. The actual content and changes were unbelievable clouded by the “nerdy” and “geeky” jokes happening between Rubi and whatever game developer. I was borderline disgusted by the lack of professionalism in the streams, as this is where I am going for my information on the expansion.

I have a friend who was considering joining GW2 from WoW, and he was repelled from the game by how the content was discussed on stream.

It may just be me, but this unprofessional and “joking” attitude makes me not take the content seriously. It makes me not want to play Guild Wars 2 as my primary game. Apologies for using WoW as the example, but it is the game I have the second most experience with. Prior to the release of Warlords of Draenor, the latest expansion, content streams were EXTREMELY clear, decisive, and felt like an interaction between people who develop games as a career and people who pay money to play them. On the forums I could find a wall of text with every detail of new content and features. The expansion felt well put together, prepared, and professional.

Heart of Thorns worries me, because while trying to research new content, I’m forced to sit through literally hours of joking around and pointless conversation with information buried inside.

I love GW2 and I think ArenaNet is doing a great job, but if you want to be taken seriously as a top MMO, please act accordingly…

MrTJpwnz.4710:

I would change the alchemy trait line to protection injection, self-regulating defenses and iron blooded for a bid more defense in this trait line. This allows us to swap inventions out to either firearms (High Caliber, No scope and modified ammunition) or tools (reactive lenses, speedy kits or takedown round and Adrenal Implant). If you choose fire arms and you really miss the perma +50% endurance regen you could take Heavy armor exploit in firearms with Invigorating Speed in alchemy.

For the scrapper traitline I do not agree with the fact that Mass Momentum doesn’t do anything… As you will have like 3.1k armor (with 5 stacks of adaptive armor) which would give you another 310 power from the conversion only. This is a little bit more then 10 stacks of might. Also the extra might stacks you get once you have stability allows you to stay on your 25 might stacks longer. I think you don’t need all the regen because you have enough defense with these traits + hammer + toolkit.

For the skills, Elixir gun isn’t that great anymore because I don’t run HGH anymore, also I don’t really like Elixir U. What I would use is slick shoes for sure, as that is probably the main task for engi’s in melee train, control. For the other utility I don’t know yet what to choose.. If you want to go for the most damage you should take bomb kit, higher damage then hammer AA while not being killed by retal fast compared to grenade kit. Otherwise maybe bulwark gyro could be a good choice (very good reflect toolbelt skill, very little damage reduction, AoE daze) or maybe something like elixir B.

I’ll try to respond to everything point you raised as best as I can

In alchemy, the swap to SRD and IB are very viable. My trait choices in alchemy are just what I tried, as I only had a couple of hours raiding to test the entire setup. I will definitely be trying these as alternatives come HoT release.

Now if you drop inventions, you drop healing power, condi cleanse (which the engineer lacks to begin with), mecha legs (this is the most important), and either the middle or bottom trait of both the first and third lines, depending on preference. Everything in the line is useful. With the swap to firearms, the only thing you gain is +20% crit chance and +2% damage per condition on foe. The bleeds are irrelevant (aside from the crit chance gain, which I considered), and No Scope is pretty pointless as the party already provides perma-fury with pack runes.

If you swap to tools and take adrenal implant (the obvious choice, as you suggested), the first and third minor are COMPLETELY wasted. Vigor doesn’t stack with adrenal implant and your endurance is almost never full when in heated combat. If it is, it means you’re probably not dodging. Steamlines kits is pointless as we already have perma swiftness (guard staff3, warrior horn, pack runes, etc.), which leaves us with takedown round, which is lackluster. Mechanized deployment and Reactive lenses are very good.

We get two clear and different benefits from swapping to tools or firearms, as I discussed above. However, when losing inventions, we lose 3 very viable minors as well as 3 viable major traits. In addition, asking a Scrapper to run without mecha legs is like asking a warrior to run without Dogged March. It just doesn’t happen.

Keep in mind, I wrote this build for a coordinated melee train. Mass Momentum is indeed useless (atleast for my guild). I’m not sure what other guilds run, but warriors in my guild run Phalanx Strength which, between two in a party, is a sustained 25 stacks of might. Any personal might I apply is more often than not wasted. In addition, I tried to avoid selfish damage traits like MM in my build. If you run in a guild where your parties lack 25 stacks of might in combat, then MM is absolutely the best choice. Otherwise, stick with RR.

In terms of the utility changes, the three utilities I included are not at all cemented utilities. The benefit of an engineer is that we can change utilities on demand without a build change to fit the group composition. Slick shoes is absolutely a viable trait which I will most likely take instead of E-Gun myself.

On the contrary, I disagree with the next two suggestions. Bomb kit is far less damage than hammer. First of all, the explosions are delayed which does little good for a melee train pushing into enemies. In addition, bomb kit is well known as a bunker condition kit. The only power-based bomb is the auto attack, as the next 4 are burn, confusion, smoke, and immobilize with small direct damage additions. Bomb kit seems very weak in the melee train. Also, Bulwark gyro seems weak as well. The gyro itself is awful as it currently dies very fast in a zerg setting. The daze could be good if used correctly. The reflection dome is good as well, however our guardians run Wall of Reflections and… going back to elixir U, I could get the same reflects but have quickness, fury, and might to go with it from a not-terrible utility such as B-Gyro.

Let me know what you think

GreyWraith.8394:

Rhego.6590:

On the topic of Adaptive Armor vs Perfectly Weighted, I think adaptive armor is superior. Two guardians in party both with two sources of party stab is plenty. In addition, gaining stab on an evade is a clunky and strange mechanic. Dodges should be saved to avoid incoming damage, not to try and proc stability which we already have. The 500 armor gain from Adaptive armor as well as the condition damage decrease is a HUGE survivability increase, which is what allows the gear selections to be so damage oriented. Dropping that defensive trait for 10% hammer damage is not worth it in the long run.

If you are playing with 2 guards in your party, I see your point. That said, hammer leap is an evade. If you are leaping in with a melee train you are guaranteed to be evading something. This is a really really good trait.

Hammer leap is indeed an evade, and that synergy is strong. Leap with the driver, evade attacks, gain stability to get through… My problem with the trait is is has a 5 second ICD for only two stacks of 3s stability. If there’s anything more than two lines of warding down, the trait won’t let me pass. In addition, I will already have stab on the leap if my guardians manage their cooldowns effectively.

Considering the damage, 10% increase is a lot of damage… However adaptive armor lets me go way zerkier than if I had 500 less armor in combat, which would force me to build more knights/soldiers to reach an acceptable armor level. The compensation needed to make up for the loss armor would most likely equate to a bigger damage loss than the 10% gain.

At the end of the day every trait choice like this comes down to preference. If you find the stab on evade useful and the 10% damage significant (and most importantly can survive without adaptive armor), then by all means run the trait.

On paper, adaptive armor looks superior to me. However, I haven’t done too much testing with Perfectly Weighted nor really considered it so… It will be the first thing I try on the 23rd for sure

As an extended response to all the questions, this build worked very well in raids. Its tanky at its core, so it can afford to run a lot of zerk gear and do some insane damage. If you need stab you can swap to elixir B, and elixir S for invuln but…. As in any zerging party, my guardians provided me with stability. My point in not taking many defensives is the scrapper doesn’t need them to survive.

“I think Reapers are going to be better off on the front-line than Scrappers – largely because they can afford to run full Soldier gear”

^ This to me makes no sense. Running full soldiers gear is a detriment to your zerg as you’re sacrificing damage output to keep yourself alive. Scrapper could run soldiers gear and be an invincible monster with over 3.5k armor and 25k hp. The point is, as I said, Scrapper doesnt need full soldiers to survive

Keep in mind guys this post isnt “the ultimate Scrapper build”. The purpose of the post is to convince the non-believers that Scrapper has a place in the frontline. If you think a trait change or gear change is worth it, awesome. Make that change for yourself. Either way, Scrapper remains viable, which is the point

From my experience Iron Blooded is an overkill defensive skill. I didn’t find myself needing it while raiding during beta. Self regulating defenses is not good at all. It is more viable to run elixir S utility, but anything like SRD or vamp runes that could interrupt whatever you’re doing (healing turret, cleaving downs, etc) isn’t a good idea.

And I disagree about not being able to outplay guardian or warrior. I have extended experience on both guardian and warrior… From the opening empower to the f-spam bag collection, Scrapper has the higher dps for sure. The damage isn’t all jammed into one skill (100B), and the ranged pressure engi provides is ridiculously superior to guardian and warrior (warrior has none, guardian has staff 1 spam and symbols 3, which doesn’t come close to mortar kit damage nor utility).

In terms of uniqueness, that is exactly what Scrapper brings. Option for slick shoes, HGH, mortar kit, Elixir R if desired, Hammer 5… the list continues, but all these things are currently non-existent in the raid.

On the topic of Adaptive Armor vs Perfectly Weighted, I think adaptive armor is superior. Two guardians in party both with two sources of party stab is plenty. In addition, gaining stab on an evade is a clunky and strange mechanic. Dodges should be saved to avoid incoming damage, not to try and proc stability which we already have. The 500 armor gain from Adaptive armor as well as the condition damage decrease is a HUGE survivability increase, which is what allows the gear selections to be so damage oriented. Dropping that defensive trait for 10% hammer damage is not worth it in the long run.

Hello everyone,

As a long time engineer player, I am a huge advocate of bringing an engineer or two to the melee train. I will go over the build I made in extreme detail as to highlight everything an engineer brings and why it is viable in the WvW front line meta.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASlUUhyrYJXwdLQ7FLTGF9cX37dY/kMhl4zcABAA-T1BEwAMV+BT9nc7PA4CA84BA4WHwWlgkBgZMA-w

WEAPON AND UTILITIES:
For obvious reasons, the hammer will be used in the melee train. I’ll try to quickly go over each skill and why it is useful in raid.
1: 1.5s auto attack chain that provides, at the end of the chain, two stacks of personal might and AoE vulnerability
2: A 1s whirl on a 6s CD. From experience, this whirl does anywhere from 3k (no crits), to 7k (all crits) AoE. This is what will be compared to a warrior’s 100B on a downed clump. It is infact less damage, however I believe it is much better. 100B is a front facing conal effect that roots the warrior. Electro-whirl is a 360 degree spin which you can move while using. Slightly less damage, hits more bodies, doesn’t root the player, and has a shorted CD. Did I mention it reflects projectiles and is a whirl finisher? And I will repeat, 6 second cooldown.
3: The leap is kind of clunky, however it covers good distance and, when used in melee range, provides pretty solid AoE damage while evading. 4-8k damage overall on a 10s CD. This is what is used to still cleave when the downed clump gets a bit too hot to use 2.
4: A 2s block on a 20s CD. It applies 10 stacks of vuln AoE to anyone it touches and ticks for damage for the entire duration. The damage gets up to usually 4-6k per target. Again solid filler damage when 2 and 3 are on CD but cleave is still needed.
5: Every 24s, a Scrapper can cast a 240 radius AoE lightning field that stuns on the first strike. After the initial strike, pulses 6 times doing high damage and applying vulnerability. This skill is unbelievable in combination with 2 or 3, which will ALWAYS be up and ready to combo considering their short cooldowns. In this 6s time span, the engineer can AoE stun everyone in the targeted area and pump 10-15k dmg into the radius.

This is something a stance greatsword warrior just can’t compete with. I have played both, and although the numbers on 100B are higher, the Scrapper is much more effective at cleaving downed bodies and as well as pumping damage to wherever the tag goes. The hammer is a beast. The damage is high, the survivability is crazy, the mobility is there, it has everything. I would go as far as saying the 1-5 skills on the Scrapper’s hammer make it the best melee zerging weapon currently in the game. The hammer alone makes Scrapper a frontline contender.

The healing turret is the best heal in the game. It provides around an 8k heal, AoE regeneration, and a water field with a built in blast finisher. All need be said.

The utilities are where things get interesting. The build I posted runs Elixir U, Toolkit, and Elixir Gun. Things get complicated here, because these are optional… but they’re not. Toolkit block will save an engineer’s life, hands down. Any engineer can attest to this. 3s block on a 20s CD seems lackluster, but it is a life saver. It has to be there. Toolkit also brings an AoE cripple/bleed field which can be surprisingly useful when trying to retreat and regroup. Even 1-2s delay on an enemy frontline bombing us can be the difference between landing a regroup and not. The cool thing, however, is that toolkit allows engineer to sub in as pick (Gank). Magnet pull + pry bar combo is always there and ready to use on an enemy ele or necro that is out of place.
Elixir Gun is a must have. The toolbelt skill is a stun break, and 5 skill pulses healing, the 4 skill ticks for 2,000/sec on downed bodies, and the 3 skill sprays poison in a frontal cone. The elixir gun is 6 stacks of AoE might, AoE poison on a short CD, a stun break, and a massive boost to downed player cleave. Definitely worth bringing.
The 3rd utility is largely up to preference. In my experience it is best to take Elixir U. The toolbelt skill is a 50% chance between a Wall of Reflection and a Smoke field. Either way, it will block projectiles on a regroup, allowing guardians to run tri-shout. The Elixir U itself is pretty self explanatory. Take a look back up to the damage that comes from the hammer skills. Increase the speed that damage is pumped out by 50%, add fury, add 7 stacks of might. Things will die. If for some reason the engineer is lacking stability, Elixir U should be subbed for Elixir B for a 16s AoE stability throw combined with strong boon presence.

This is one of the biggest beauties of the engineer. It is completely unique in that the build does not revolve around the utilities (Shout cleanse guardian, stance warrior, cantrip ele, should I continue?). The build works with no utilities. The engineer can bring to the raid what the raid needs, not what the engineer needs to make the build work.
No banner warrior? Throw Elixir R is a banner with twice the range, 1/8th of the cast time, and on 1/3rd of the cooldown, however pulses revive rather than does it instantly. However… sometimes banner doesn’t work. The ally is healed to 90% and isn’t picked up. With a 12s pulsing revive, that won’t happen (Unless they are well bombed, but what can you do…). No, pulse isn’t great, but an engineer can get this out literally 8 times faster than a warrior can banner, and can even use it before anyone goes down to anticipate downed players and pick them up before the enemy has a chance to even notice they’re down. It may not be “better”, but it’s undoubtedly viable. It works.
Slick shoes completely stability strips the enemy, as it isn’t a knock down. It’s a knock down FIELD, which does not exist anywhere else in the game. Everything else of its kind pulses. Slick shoes does not pulse. It provides a lined out field of knockdown. Enough said.
Elixir S for AoE stealth and extra survivability? Rocket boots for focused burn and crazy mobility? Bomb kit for fire fields, smoke fields, immobilize on a push, or a Big Ol’ Bomb on players trying to revive downs?
The point is engineer is versatile. Scrapper isn’t cornered into utilities x, y, and z to be viable. A Scrapper can change and adapt utilities based on what the raid requires at that time, which is a big factor to combat that no other raid class can currently offer, and if so, not nearly to the caliber of a Scrapper.

The Scrapper frontline elite is obvious: the mortar kit. Huge AoE damage from orbital strike, AoE poison, AoE chill, AoE blind, and a water field. All jammed into one elite skill. What does this mean, though? This means that a Scrapper in the melee train can contribute to ranged pressure with more than a staff-3 symbol or a greatsword 4 toss. A Scrapper can put very relevant and constant ranged pressure into a group when the melee are too low to jump in and bomb, which is something no other melee brings. Versatile and universal contribution to combat.

TRAITS:
The trait lines the frontline hammer Scrapper should bring are Alchemy, Inventions, and Scrapper.

Alchemy: The minors for alchemy are very strong. Every 40s, while stuck below 75%hp, the engineer drinks an Elixir B. This provides the engi with Fury, Might, Retaliation, and perma swiftness. Perma swiftness is extremely important to this build which will be explained in the Scrapper trait line. In addition, every 15s, a condition is converted to a boon, elixirs cure conditions, and boon duration is increased by 20%. Protection Injection provides 3s of protection on kitten ICD when the engineer is disabled. This is very important for a frontline player as, every time the engineer is knocked down, the damage received in that time is effectively mitigated. Next is backpack regenerator, which provides about the same healing per second as the regeneration boon. This applies when using toolkit and elixir gun only. Finally, we take HGH. This is such a good trait. It reduces the cooldown of all elixirs (Elixir U, Elixir U throw, Healing Mist [our stun break], Elixir gun 4 and 5, and mortar kit 5 [our disposable water field]) by 20%, increases their duration by 20%, and grants all allies around the engineer 2 stacks of might for 28 seconds. What does this mean? With the current build setup, a well played Scrapper can contribute anywhere from 11-16 stacks of AoE might to the party. This is based on proximity, however, so this might is going to the melee. However, this brings a unique mechanic to the table. All of this might stacking is disposable skill use (not part of core rotation), meaning this can be prestacked. No need to stop and blast might. Two engineers can get the party at 25 stacks of might ON THE MOVE going into the fight. Oh… and every single one of these cures a condition on allies, Elixir gun 5 clearing two as one is base (16s CD :sick:).

Inventions: This trait line is more of a filler and survivability boost, as neither explosives or firearms is really any good for a scrapper. The minor traits AoE clear a damaging condition and grant AoE regen every time the engi uses a heal. This provides perma regen for self (and party if played correctly), which will permanently increase healing power by 250. The best trait engi gets here is Bunker Down, which spawns a mine and healing pack (heals for 500-1k and grants regen). The mine does about 2k AoE dmg. This skill is on a 2 second ICD and procs every time the engi crits. 70% crit chance with fury. Considering the lack of a GCD and an auto attack ICD of 0.5s, this equates to a critical hit approximately every 0.7 seconds with fury (more if you take into account skills that tick and hit multiple times like 2 and 5), which means an extra 740 AoE dps/sec where ever the engineer trains. 740 AoE dps/sec adds up. Mech legs is only takes for the reduces duration on cripple/chill/immob, which is a big boost to a scrappers survivability. Finally we take either AMR or ABD. AMR would be the goto for obvious reasons, but has been broken for a long time and does not function correctly with healing turret, therefore we take ABD for AoE blind when knocked down, further buffering damage taken while disabled.

Scrapper: So good. A ranged stomp/revive. It is buggy and yes it can be killed, but it is mostly used for a double speed revive, which unarguably is handy. Other than that, its used to stomp a downed enemy in Africa. Helps clean up the trash. Reviving or stomping grants superspeed (this is better than it sounds), and AoE 5 stacks of might for 14s, further strengthening an Engineers ability to stack might for the party. Finally, stun durations are increase on others and decreased on self by 25%. Start from the lesser this time, Recovery Matrix provides 30% protection uptime (currently 60% as it is bugged and procs twice with healing turret). Since might is taken care of, MM is overkill, therefore we take Recovery Matrix. This gives pack runes a purpose aside from being a fury bot. Permanent swiftness + Backpack regenerator + permanent regeneration boon = about 400 passive healing per second, which is just about a warrior’s healing signet. This allows the engineer to conserve healing turret AND elixir gun 5 for TWO separate water fields blasts. Please understand this; with this much passive healing the Scrapper’s healing skill is used as a raid-wide healing cooldown as opposed to a personal heal. Healing turret base 4k heal + zerg blast + detonate blast is essentially a full raid heal. Finally… Adaptive Armor. The god trait. This provides 100 toughness every second while hit stacking up to 5 times, which ends up being a sustained 500 extra armor in combat. In addition, it proves -20% condi damage taken. Note, this is not condition duration as seen on typical frontline food or hoelbrak runes. This is direct mitigation to condition damage, which is something brand new to HoT and engineer.

GEAR:
Let me begin by saying none of the gear stats are set in stone. The stats for this build, due to certain traits, can afford to drop a lot of survivability for straight berserk gear. Beginning with a pure power/precision/ferocity setup, berserk can slowly be dropped for knights gear until a comfortable armor level is reached (keep adaptive armor in mind). I added a soldiers hammer to the build as well. Considering the removal of guard stacks, which is a loss of 2,500 health, I feel that 16,500 health is a bit too low for frontline,especially when outnumbered. 18,500 feels much more comfortable. Again all of this gear can be swapped for knights/soldiers/zerk to reach whatever stat cap you feel appropriate.

The rune of choice is Superior Rune of the Pack. This provides AoE swiftness, fury, and might on hit which is crucial for party-wide fury uptime. Furthermore, however, it gives the Scrapper the permanent swiftness needed to maintain the passive ~400h/s.

The sigil choice is fairly straight forward as well. Energy for dodge on weapon/kit swap and bloodlust for the damage increase.

SUMMARY:
If you are still reading, thank you. I put a lot of time into typing all of this up and trying to convey why I feel frontline Scrapper is viable. If you skipped everything and are just reading this, that’s fine, but an uninformed opinion on Scrapper’s viability carries no weight nor influence.

Scrapper is the warrior’s cooler cousin. They are fairly similar in playstyle at the core, but Scrapper brings a lot of extras whereas warrior is black and white in terms of what it brings to the raid. A warrior brings party might, AoE swiftness (so does everyone else), focused damage, and a banner. An engineer brings similar party might with a different mechanic, arguably more damage, and utility worth 4-5 pages of text, as opposed to a warrior’s selfish stances. I am not at all suggesting all warriors be replaced with Scrappers, but to say that a Scrapper brings nothing unique and new to a raid group is just insanity. Read above. The healing turret, the disgusting cleave damage, the combo finishers, the fields… poison spray, situational utilities, mortar kit, AoE HGH might stacking, modified banner… permanent party regeneration, A 1200 RANGE STOMP OR REVIVE, wall of reflection, the only stability strip field in the game… I could go on.

The WvW meta has changed, friends. What used to be the the most unloved, under-represented profession in the game which saw no viable use outside of roaming and sPvP is now the powerhouse of the zerg-busting front line.

Please let me know what you all think. I truly believe Scrapper is more than viable in the zerg, however I think people are partially biased by the history of the “engineer”. Engineer in a zerg was never viable before, so why would it be now? Same reason front line parties include druids. They saw a major reworking, they heal better than anything, and they’re worth bringing. Scrappers saw a major reworking, they cleave and bomb better than any other melee, they have high amounts of utility and support that has yet to be seen in a zerging class, and they’re worth bringing.

Thanks for reading,

Aarrgon

>>>>Bump again<<

>>>>>Bump<<<<<

Hello!

I have been searching for a guild for quite some time now and haven’t found the right fit for me yet so… I figured I would post here. The most important thing before any is an active, social, friendly environment. A community is key in a successful guild. This being said, I prefer smaller rosters (where I can get to know everyone) and where people rep the guild most of the time. I’ll try to avoid too much fluff and keep things somewhat organized

In terms of my background, I played WoW for 5-6 years before GW2. I was the raid leader of a guild in Cata as a paladin tank, and from MoP to just recently I played resto druid. Also, if it means anything, I reached 1900CR this season in 2v2s and 2100CR in 3v3s as a healer (I apologize if you do not play WoW and that means nothing to you haha). GW2 has been my main game since release day. I have experience in multiple GvG guilds (both frontline and backline, I seldom play gank) as well as driving WvW zerg-busting crews. I guess this means I could assist with driving if needed? Not necessarily my goal, though. I have been a part of very successful, but casually active PvP teams as both DD Ele and Rifle Engineer (which I now main).

I’m mainly interested in WvW. I am looking for a decent zerg busting guild with NA time zone evening raids (between 6pm and 12am est… weekdays > weekends). I have extensive experience as a guardian/warrior, but also spent a number of months playing staff ele. I want to play hammer engineer in the raid come HoT release, but when it comes down to it I am a versatile player and will play what is needed.
When not raiding, I will usually roam either solo or in small groups or sPvP. Very interested in finding a dedicated rated PvP team.
I have very little PvE experience in GW2 (I believe I’m only up to level 20-30 fractals but I do have dungeon master title). Instanced 10-man raids interest me a lot, however WvW and PvP will remain my priority.

Why am I looking for a guild? I have very bad luck when it comes to guilds
My first guild had fantastic people, but was a bit too casual and relaxed for my taste. The next was great as well, but the leadership ended up leaving for a sister guild which kind of left the guild to die. My most previous guild was a good fit for me as well, however there were major communication issues and some weak leadership skills in play :/ Just not what I’m looking for.

Hopefully I can find a guild that’s a good fit for me. Feel free to either post a response here, or message me/mail me in game!

>>I will transfer servers<<

Rhego.6590

Thanks all!

Other guardians are nice but I don’t really rely on anything for condition clear. What I have is enough for me and keeps me alive when the necro pops power signet. With the amount of survivability I have, a stack of bleed or something is pretty negligible in the long run. Also, I actually notice A LOT of cleanse come from whirl finishers in the massive amount of light fields I throw down.

On the topic of the weapons, I will have to disagree. The staff/staff with different sigils is a BAD idea, you need a melee weapon to be able to get in there and lead the charge. Also, Mace/Shield… I agree that it’s a better healing set. If you want healing, go M/S. I want survivability. Keep in mind this is WvW, not PvE. The hammer offers me a decent bit of healing with both finishers off my auto attack symbol, 410 hps with AH, and BY FAY the most important, the control. Ring of Warding in the smack dab middle of a battle is way better than a shield knockback. So again, healing, M/S. WvW commanding, I’ll stick with the hammer

That warrior seems pretty nice, but the thing is it’s stand alone. There’s not much that improves when you get into a zerg setting. I bring guardian because it pulls ahead of the warrior when you start running with 50+ people. Look at it this way. Healing: healing signet op. 400 heals per second give or take some depending on healing power. When I’m in the zerg, my hammer auto attack, symbol of swiftness, hammer 2, and just about everything else I throw out gives me 410 heals per second. Adding virtue of resolve to counter the warriors toughness 3 trait bonus, I match the heals per second of a warrior if not go over it while in combat. Oh wait, I still have a 2 second block and a 6,000 heal (5k from shelter, 1k from water rune bonus) on a 30 second cooldown. 1 vs 1 and theory crafting, the warrior is far superior to the guardian. However when you get into a zerg setting and realize how much the guardian shines, the guardian pulls ahead for sure.

Also, water runes give +20% boon duration, not +15% xD

Elite: I run two elites… one may seem noobish but, hey, I like it. It’s good.

The default – Renewed Focus. Virtue of Justice is generally used on cooldown. You should avoid using Virtue of Resolve as you lose the hps, and Virtue of Courage is generally used on cooldown or in times of need. Renewed Focus offers invulnerability for 2 seconds, similar to Shelter (our heal). THIS is your “Oh kitten” button. It allows us to reset our virtures. Generally Justice and Courage will already be on cooldown, but while channeling RF you should use Resolve for the 3,600 heal (including the regeneration is provides), as the passive will be instantly reset after the 2 second channel time. Again, you want to keep this passive up. Virtue of Resolve is like a mini Healing Signet for Guardians. The mechanics work the same way, only use Healing Signet or Virtue of Resolve is you absolutely NEED the small burst heal to survive. Otherwise, the passive regeneration far out weights the usageof the skill in healing.

When I have been running for hours and SBI fights the same zergs over and over and we are winning, I can go a bit more offensive. I often switch out Renewed Focus for the Human elite “Reaper of Grenth” (again, only when I have experience with who I’m fighting and KNOW they won’t come close to wiping us). This ticks (ticking is good as it’s resistant to condition clear… conditions are just reapplies) poison and chill for 15 seconds on 10 targets and is unblockable. Poison reduces healing effectiveness by 33% and damages foes while chill reduces movement speed and skill recharge rate by 66%. This is EXTREMELY GOOD. If I don’t need the survivability that RF offers, opening a fight with ticking chill and poison on the enemies’ 15 man melee train, which again cannot be cleared as it TICKS, is pretty kitten good. Bonus: makes you look kitten and it’s something that can and should be used every fight while using it, not just in times of “oh kitten” button spamming like RF. Sold!

(Please realize I run with Renewed Focus. Again, only if I’ve fought the same zerg 3+ times and know we will win the fight do I switch to the Reaper elite)

Food: Another factor that I believe to be player preference. I run Bowl of Lemongrass soup for condition-heavy fights, Mango Pies for the heals per second when I’m just doing whatever, and always whatever form of Sharpening Stones you can afford.

If you made it to the end of the wall of text, thank you for reading Please leave any comments on what could be improved or changed, however unless its a fairly minor change I will be keeping my current build.
>>I DO NOT DIE<<
I am ALWAYS in the fight and ALWAYS the last to die. Respective reasons being: because my god-mode tank build allows me to be and I only die when I stop receiving Altruistic Healing ticks.. this happens when the rest of the group wipes. I have ZERO complaints about this build. Works extremely well if you know how to not kill yourself with Save Yourselves (ha xD).
Thanks everyone! (x-fer to SBI. We kitten)

Traits:
6 in Valor – This one isn’t up for discussion, sorry. Altruistic Healing is MUST HAVE for a Guardian commander. With my healing power, each AH tick is 82 healing. This results, in a zerg setting, in an additional 410 healing per second for every second I’m providing boons. Symbol of swiftness ticks for 4 seconds, hammer auto ticks for 2 seconds, Stand Your Ground gives 10 boons total (820 healing), Save Yourselves gives 7 boons. This doesn’t include blasts finishers with your Mighty Blow every 4 seconds. Enough said. Now we’re left to fill the line. Purity for condition removal, Strength in Numbers for an additional 150 toughness in combat.

6 in Honor – Major props to Arena Net for implementing Force of Will. 300 Vitality translates to 3000 hp, which, with guard stacks and everything else, brings me to nearly 30,000 hp as a Guardian. Battle Presence is also strong, however I feel the additional vitality outweighs 150 additional healing per second to your party. Again we are left to fill the line. Two-Handed Mastery as we run two two-handed weapons, hammer and staff. Superior Aria as we run two shouts, Stand Your Ground being the more important of the two. The more often you have stability as a commander, the better.

2 in Virtues – Master of Consecrations… <3 This allows us to bring Purging Flames into the setup, which is our emergency >AoE< condition cleanse. It instantly removes 3 conditions and reduces the remaining conditions’ duration by 33% on yourself and 4 allies, it burns 5 foes, and it’s a fire field for combo finishers, which provides healing due to Altruistic Healing. Lasts for 6 seconds on a 28 second cooldown. Sold.

Utility Skills:

Heal: You are the big guy in the front with the hammer blazing and the blue over-head triangle shining. You’re going to get CC’d and focused to hell. You need something that will stop incoming damage, heal you up, be a guaranteed heal every use (no chance of getting interrupted), and on top of all that have a short cooldown. Shelter it is.

Utilities: Stand Your Ground is self explanatory… you need it. I raved about Purging Flames above, also a solid choice. Save Yourselves is where it gets iffy. No it’ not the best choice.. but it’s what I bring. Let’s talk shouts and consecrations as you’re traited for both. It would be a bit silly to bring three different types of utilities (although Signet of Judgement could work). Retreat just isn’t worth it… you have swiftness already, and ONE Aegis isn’t worth a utility slot. Hold the Line would be my runner up choice, but for me it just doesn’t do enough… 28 second cooldown for 5 second of protection (which you have already, hammer 1) and a 1600 heal over 7 seconds? I feel like I can get more out of utility slot. Hallowed Ground isn’t really needed as you have Stability from Stand Your Ground, and usually you pop stability to move THROUGH CC… HG is stationary. Save Yourselves isn’t your “Oh kitten” button, if you use it that way you will die. It pulls all conditions from your party to you. Here’s how I use it:
A) When I do need an “Oh kitten” button, Save Yourselves —> Purging Flames always works
B) When you are either restacking for another push or about to initiate the fight. Conditions will have been cleared at both these times, so SY can be used for the amazing boons without worry of suicide.
Now, putting aside the blaring cons, why bring SY? BOONS Protection, Regeneration, Swiftness, and Vigor along with some extra dps (Retaliation, Might, Fury) all for 13 seconds. Like previously stated, popping SY before moving in definitely gives you more general… how do I describe it.. horsepower for 13 seconds. It puts you into supercharge mode and gives you almost everything you could want (aside from stability) for a substantial amount of time. Oh, and it’s a stun break. Again, if you use it the right way, sold. 48 second cooldown.

Hello Guild Wars 2!

My Guardian’s name is Aarrgon and I am a frequent commander on the SBI server. I’ve been playing with my build 2 trait points at a time for months now and, after running this build for the past few weeks commander, I think I’ve got it. Side note: COMMANDER’S AREN’T SUPPOSED TO DO DAMAGE. Sorry to any who disagree but.. a commander has two jobs:
1. Command
2. Survive
Nothing more. The dps comes from the zerg, not the commander.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVEQJASWlsApVoNDxfH8DNRCRl1Mg9HECl51BwCcAA-TlSDABOcBA+V9noU+9lSwe1BonmgjPCAQt/AGHCAAeAAAA-w

So, now for the explanation:

Weapons:
Hammer: This is the front line Guardian’s bread and butter… Decent auto attack (1) with a protection symbol every third hit, which is outstanding for addition damage mitigation on your front line (I believe hammer also has the highest dps auto attack, which is a nice bonus of course). Mighty Blow (2) is used on cooldown for everything from your opener to might stacking to just killing kitten in combat. Zealot’s Embrace (3) is a nice ranged pull if needed (1200 range) which immobilizes everything in it’s path (up to 5). Imobilize is a form of CC, as it controls the crowd (in this case in terms of movement), and CC is always good for a tank. Banish (4) is again more CC… nice for interrupting revives, or even better, just smacking the downed body around in the zerg. Finally Ring of Warding (5) is just amazing. Once in combat, any warding ability is great for splitting zergs (those that have stability pass, those who do not are stunned), as it’s not like a Banish or Earthshaker. Its a continuous stun in a set location.

Staff: I would bring staff for the auto attack (1) alone… AMAZING cleave ability. 2 skill for some extra healing. Symbol of swiftness (3) for hps ticks (AH trait) and swiftness along with Empower (4) for 12 stacks of might to the party along with insane AH heals. Line of Warding (5), same explanation as Ring of Warding (see above).

Armor:
Is there much to talk about here? Three stats for survivability in GW2: Toughness (armor), Vitality (health pool), Healing Power (health pool regeneration). Nomad’s has all three with a primary in toughness, arguably the most important and most desired trait for a commander.
I fine runes to be player preference… Dolyak works for toughness, vitality, and hp regen… Melandru for CC mitigation (I feel this works better for warriors)… However I take Water for the healing power, condition removal, 20% boon duration, and additional 1,000 heal each time I use Shelter. Dolyak would be my second choice.
WHY NOT TROOPER?!
Well, simply because I don’t run shouts that I would use for the condition cleanse. Stand Your Ground is strictly for stability, and Save Yourselves (I’ll get to this later) is for the boon gain for a little extra “umph” in your overall performance for 11 seconds. I would NEVER say “Oh wow, I have poison on me” and pop stand your ground, therefore I find the 6 ability on Trooper to be a bit of a waste. Even if party-wide cleanse is taken into account… it still shouldn’t be used for the purpose of condition removal.
Soldier trinkets for toughness and vitality.

What Carighan.6758 talked about sounds like a raid to me
Raid style content pretty please, Anet

Guys.. sigh the original post mentioned how thieves don’t need a nerf, players just need to learn their counters. I main a thief. I agree. I have fought a TON of horrible players who blindly run around and swing hammers trying to “counter” me. I have fought (far fewer, but still some) very skilled players of almost every class now who have lasted up to 25 minutes in a single duel as they were aware how to counter stealth. Every class has a way to counter thief, but the “trick” is EXPERIENCE. There’s no magical Book of All Things Holy on the forums that’s going to say do THIS to counter a thief. If you really want to kill a stealth thief, roll a thief, figure out how they work, and learn what your own counters are. Then just apply those counters offensively and you may win :P
I originally played guardian most of the time and got SICK of these backstab thieves always killing me. I made a thief, did some pvp, and after I learned started to enjoy it. I now main thief and know my mechanical counter from any other class, including other thieves (being a D/D thief). This is indeed knowledge you should probably read up on and I will be happy to give anyone answers if you message me either on forums or in game but.. I still stand by my latter reasoning being that the biggest counter to a thief is having played one and knowing how they work. Thieves have loop holes in terms of defensive capabilities. Find them and exploit them.

Agreed. Although the roles in gw2 was the original topic, I believe at this point the challenge level of the mechanics in the game is a bit more prevalent now. The roles is something I personally will adapt to as well as many others who are Lich-babies like myself I’ll never forget my paladin. On the contrary, if the game offered a bit more challenging content in terms of what was discussed above, I don’t think there would really be any need to discuss roles at all. More involved mechanics along with an equal distribution of mechanics throughout all 5 players would change any “I miss my tank” feelings to “What can I do as a guardian to support my team against this difficult mechanic.”
^THAT is the “support role” I was referring to, and if you consider the current stack/burn/loot that every boss encounter has become, this role is not possible, and even if it is, its not wanted on 90% of encounters. Why bring support skills when you can just stack and burn with dps skills? <— this is what I feel is the problem. No need for half the utilities in my skill box. Sure there’s a theoretical need: “X boss in Y dungeon could require Z skill” could be applied to anything. But is there a constant need for someone bringing some support skills when mostly everything is just stack and burn? Not really

I agree that there is no definite trinity, but it definitely isn’t wrong to attempt to categorize play styles in GW2 in such a manner. The “New Trinity” is not a finite concept even in the slightest, just a way to attempt to categorize and furthermore reference different styles of building your character and playing the game. Apologies on the delayed post, but back on the topic of whether or not dungeons should be easy or not.. unless I’m misinterpreting the concept.. IS THIS EVEN A QUESTION?
I am not sure about everyone else in the community, but I didn’t pay $60 to log on and be able to down easy content for shiny loot (I’m not at all saying this is what the game is… this is just an exaggeration to prove a point). I bought the game to develop my skills as a gamer, learn new types of play styles (I now am learning some caster classes where as before I was strictly melee), and HAVE FUN. I don’t believe any of the latter stated can be achieved via simple and easy content, aside from MAYBE learning a new playstyle? But at no means to a level of complex understanding. Am I wrong to say ALL gamers play games to be challenged? If we don’t play games for some sort of a challenge, we all might as well go back to the square, circle and triangle blocks we played with in our infant years… but wait.. even that was a challenge at the time. And furthermore completing the “challenge”, whatever it may be, is what grants the reward and therefore makes the game fun.

Furthermore, on the topic of the whole “players will find a new loophole to new content” type thing, make the boss not have an exploit… WoW did it for 10 years and is still doing it. There no secret spot for your party to stand in or a glitch you can hit the boss with that makes the fight easy. PLEASE do not respond to that saying “THE GAME ISN’T WOW GO BACK TO WOW” or any of that crap. The point is a boss fight without exploits is possible. I agree that there will always be a meta, but does having knowledge of the meta necessarily make the fight easy again? I recall having to research boss fights for the many mechanics and even then wiping 99 times. I knew the meta, and even years later when my guild and I would replay content at level with appropriate gear we would STILL wipe and need to play to the best of our ability to clear the content. Again, I keep comparing to WoW because it’s my only basis of comparison regarding a solid boss fight. A boss fight without a simple meta is possible GW2, and maybe to tend to casual players who enjoy easier content, don’t change everything. Just add more fights like Lipucus that require a bit more skill to down, but FIX THE EXPLOITS. Give him a mechanic like: if someone steps within melee range in the first phase, he gains a new ability making the fight change and adapt.

“I quit fractals after I got the skins i wanted. No reason to go back.”

This is the problem… What do you do now when you log on (in terms of PvE)? Just stand around in LA or maybe farm Orr until your WvW que pops or your tournament team logs online? I think what Anet really needs to do here is, way off the topic of the play style balance, gives players a reason to stay in PvE and keep doing PvE content after they get that skin they wanted. Guild Wars 2 raids? Maybe? … Who knows… but I feel that something like a 5 man raid as opposed to a dungeon with more frequent boss encounters, more difficult boss encounters, and massive rewards at the end would really throw people back on the train tracks of “Maybe I should ask my tourney team if they want to build a raid composition as well so we can get that chest at the end of x raid filled with goodies you can’t buy off the gem store!”
^ I would pay $60 10 more times if this happened. Expansion pack? Massive update like we saw in April? Who knows. (Just a side note… the posts in LFG modeling “selling arah p4 10g” is absolutely ridiculous… player A buys dungeon completion with bought gold via gem store… person B levels the character, crafts the gear, learns his class, recruits a group, and spends 2 hours in the path clearing it the old fashion way. Both receive a “Dungeon Master” title. One of the two is not a dungeon master. Problem? Absolutely.) Please leave your thoughts!

I don’t mean a literal exploit; I’m referring to any fight in which mechanics are present, yet players bypass the mechanics by just stacking and burning

a t s e.9614:

Shadow arts is a trait line for new thief players , once you understand class mechanics you will see that its not that useful and trickery/ acrobat are much stronger trait lines.

I agree it can be annoying in wvw because people can troll you with perma stealth and CnD.

I disagree 1000% as far as the “new thief players” goes. I have played D/D thief since game release and I main D/D thief to this day, and that entire time I have always loved SA. It doesn’t make you a bad player for using a strong trait line (strong being that is provides heavy hp regen, condi clear, and blind on stealth [to counter builds like hammer regen warrior]). If anything, it makes you a bad player for NOT using a strong trait line, but that’s a totally different conversation. Trait line is preference, and I personally prefer Shadow Arts. Its easily countered (Sick ‘Em is a big one) because if you know anything about thief you will be able to dodge the big full arm spam 1000 second cast time swing that is Cloak and Dagger. Shadow Arts isn’t invincible, you just need to know how to counter it. Getting back to the quoted user’s comment, SA is an easy trait line to start off with, sure, but once you have master the mechanics of a thief, if you know them well enough, you can use the Shadow Arts trait line to be a really solid player. Personally, I enjoy outnumbered fights and the sheer utility that Shadow Arts brings (mostly the condi clear and blind on stealth) can be borderline abused to win those fights :P Why give that up for “stronger trait lines” which don’t offer nearly as beneficial traits?

^This is all referring to WvW… I don’t know much about thief sPvP or tPvP

I agree with Raykon.7908 100%.

If all boss fights require is stacking and burning, why run anything other than berserker? For example.. Lupicus is a pretty interesting fight in terms of mechanics… however the fact that 5 players can melee him down in 18 seconds is absolutely ridiculous. Fixing things like this is what will reintroduce mechanics and diminish the use of exploits on fights, which will furthermore bring a wider variety of builds into PvE.

It may be just me, but I miss the days where 2-3 hours would be dedicated to figuring out how to approach boss A after watching the video online for the mechanics and wiping 5 times before the kill. A 6th attempt kill (assuming all players are skilled [no one is being carried] and the kill is a result of mastering the mechanics and fight style) for me is both much more rewarding and more enjoyable than a stack and burn 18 second melt. I LOVED the WoW fights… each one had a specific set of mechanics that were both unique to that fight and difficult at the same time. Completing the raid made you a better player. By no means would Guild Wars 2 need a tank/healer/dps trinity in order to implement such boss fights.

Asking more healing or tanking roles is pointless; this game wasn’t build around that trinity. The trinity is damage, control & support, not damage, healing and tanking.

I agree with this! The tanking/healing was only an example. The point is high level PvE needs to be a little bit more than stacking on a boss with 5 Berserker builds to exploit the mechanics of the boss and call for a player in the group has some points into healing and toughness, and maybe brings some stuns or crowd control abilities. I just believe that Arena Net should make the dungeon EXTREMELY hard to complete if all 5 players in the group are bringing the “class x max dps build” setup.

Hello Guild Wars 2 Community!

Let me begin by saying I don’t have a definitive idea of how to fix this issue… but I do know it is something that I haven’t seen talked about very much and it is something that needs to be addressed.

From my experience (I have the Dungeon Master title and have completed up to and including fractals level 40), the average PvE 5 main group in Guild Wars 2 consists of 5 full Berserker players or something very similar. Guild Wars 2 classes have three roles: Support, Control, and Damage. Berserker = damage. Where is the support and control? (Again.. this is only my opinion. Please don’t flame me haha). I come from World of Warcraft… I played a protection/holy paladin for 7 years since close to release date of WoW. I was a tank and a healer. I tanked server first kills for multiple raid bosses and my guild earned server first Deathwing kill. ALL I DID in WoW was tank. It was my heart and soul of the game; I don’t recall having a single dps character. Raid bosses were difficult and the tank and healers had to be on there game (arguably more so than the dps) to be able to clear the fight. PLEASE DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND… I am NOT asking for Guild Wars 2 to implement raids and a role trinity (tank healer dps). However, I do think it is more then necessary to develop a place in PvE content for those who have a support/control play style similar to mine. The logic which I have heard at this point is, “Bosses in high level fractals hit so hard they will 1-2 shot anyone, regardless of gear and traits, so everyone should just build Berserker for max dps.” Hopefully I’m not the only one that thinks this is outrageous. In addition, the counter argument, “Just build support anyway and bring support utilities” is also somewhat invalid as bring a support build (traits and utility skill) results in a kick because you aren’t pulling your weight in terms of damage output.
Possible solutions: Maybe decrease how hard the bosses hit just enough so a full support PVT guardian can eat some of this hits, taking aggro pressure off of his full berserker party…. do this just enough so that an individual who plays a support or control role is not only not kicked but somewhat desired in a fractal or dungeon group.
Again, I am not a game developer and I have no idea how this would be balanced or actually implemented into the game. However, I do feel that current PvE content excludes players who enjoy a Support or Control play style.

Please comment and let me know what you all think!
Who knows: maybe after enough players agreeing Arena Net will consider making some changes.

The relationship is the same as vitality —> health pool.
Vitality is the stat, health is what it increases.
Precision is that stat, critical chance is what it increases.

There will ALWAYS be people who say the exact opposite of this, but here is my opinion:

Personally, I wouldn’t value necromancer in WvW as high as warrior and mesmer.
Warrior is much more in-your-face-kill-kill playstyle in WvW, as most commanders play warrior. Mesmer has really solid utility (such as timewarp, portal bombing, veils, etc.). I would say it depends on the role you want to play when it comes to a team fight, zerg and 5 man alike. Warrior being a leader, playing a backbone-like role in the zerg with both damage and survivability; Mesmer being not as frontline yet having some really solid utility that can be both fun to use and a must-have in hardcore WvW guilds. In addition, I kind of want to generalize and say mesmers are smaller scale, where as warriors are always in the heart of the zerg. I’ve been WRECKED by mesmers 1v1, 2v2, etc. where as the hambow warrior in my guild can CC countless enemies and is always leading the charge. Not to say one can’t do the other, but… I think you ger my point

I am being a bit repetitive, so… to summarize, its all about what role you want to serve to your world. Mesmer being utility, warrior being backbone of the zerg.

Hello everyone!

I have been playing elementalist in WvW, but I recently reached 80 on my thief and want to start gearing him and actively playing him, as I enjoy the mechanics of thief. I made some mistakes gearing my guardian, so I would like some input this time before I start crafting and spending laurels.
Keep in mind, this is not the PERFECT optimized build. For example, I cannot afford 60g on divinity runes or traveler runes. Also, I know most say “if you’re good enough go full beserker” or something similar, however I didn’t go full beserker. I was aiming for a very realistic build, so I tried to allow some room for error in terms of my health pool and utility skills.
With all this in mind, here is the build:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.0|8.1g.h2.a.1g.h17.0.0.0|5.1g.h4.0.0.0|1p.710.1g.710.1p.710.1g.710.1p.710.1g.710|1g.61.1g.61.1g.61.1g.61.1g.61.1g.61|0.u16b.k14.5.f5|3l.1|59.5b.5h.5c.5v|e

I would love suggestions or advice before I start purchasing and crafting.

Thanks all!

Merry Christmas

Hello everyone!
Divine Crusade is a guild created at launch designed to serve as a home to friendly, fun, skilled players in all areas of the game. After some dead-time in GW2, we are finally rebuilding. Most of us being WoW raiders, we put a heavy emphasis on community and coordination. We plan to grow no larger than 25 active members, as a small guild allows for sincere friendships between guild members and effective coordination. As always, fun is the number one priority (why play the game if it’s not fun?), however, we are recruiting players with skill and the ability to follow directions, not stand in fire, etc..

A big point to stress is that this is not simply a guild, it is a family. Strong relationships and friendships between people for more than just players is very important. On that note, zero drama will be tolerated. It just isn’t necessary. In addition, there are no age limitations, however all members are expected to conduct themselves at a mature, sensible level. If you play smart, want to have fun, and make some great friends to travel with through Tyria, this is the guild for you!

If you have any interest or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!.
Please send in-game mail @ Rhego.6590
Thanks! See you all on the battlefield!

Hello all!
I come from WoW as a skilled Protection Paladin MainTank on the 3nd ranked guild on my server. I’m loving GW2, and it is my primary game now, and most likely will be for a long time. I play a tanky Guardian (PvE), a D/D elementalist (sPvP), and a D/P thief (WvW). I’m interested in:
1) WvW
2) PvE (high end fracs and dungeons)
3) sPvP and Tourneys
I am willing to participate in all three, but keep the ranking in mind
Being a “hardcore” raider, I’m looking for a structured (well thought out ranks and profession compositions), organized (vent/ts3), and friendly guild around 10-15 players that plans to STAY small, as to allow the members to get to know each other very well and as a result play amazingly as a team. My hopes are to hold an officer position in a guild like this, as I (>> can’t stress this enough <<) DO NOT want to be a guild master. I lead my raiding guild in WoW and I found myself more focused on other people doing their jobs rather than improving myself. However, this is where I run into problems and why I have come to the forums… I currently play on Devonas Rest and I have yet to find a guild like this in nearly 3 months. I am willing to server x-fer if someone gets back to me with a really cool sounding guild.
^^ I hope this wasn’t too lengthy I’m hoping this will be the last step of my search for a permanent Guild Wars 2 guild.
Thanks everyone!